Photo by Milton Morris
Reed and Ethan Severance
AGES: Reed, 58; Ethan, 18
HOMETOWN: Pickens, where they are Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative members
WEEKEND AVOCATION: Volunteer grist millers at Hagood Mill’s Third Saturday festivals in Pickens
DAY JOBS: Reed has a degree in mechanical engineering and is a process engineer for Jacobs Engineering in Greenville; Ethan is a Clemson University freshman, majoring in engineering
TRAINING: Both are among the 37 certified historic millers trained by the Society for the Preservation of Old Mills; Reed was the 16th to complete the program; Ethan is one of the youngest
BIRTHDAY: Both were born on July 14
Father and son, they show up faithfully every third Saturday, in sweltering heat or bitter cold. They unlatch rustic window shutters to let fresh air and sunlight seep into the historic wooden gristmill. They crank up the huge waterwheel and haul 50-pound bags of grain into place for a full day of milling, just as millers have done here for 172 years.
At Hagood Mill in Pickens, a site dedicated to preserving remnants of a bygone way of life, Reed and Ethan Severance are living history.
“Here, you can actually be in a place from the 19th century, doing pretty much the exact stuff they did then, feeling the building shake, smelling the smells,” says Reed, who dresses the part in period clothes, with pocket watch and pocketsful of old money.
They churn out milled grains for sale to customers. If any part of the mill’s mechanism breaks, they figure out how to fix it. Reed tracks each day’s output and repairs by hand in an old-fashioned log book.
Ethan is fully focused on running the mill. He was captivated by its working parts at age 3, on his first visit. The rolling wheel, water gushing through the sluice, raw grain transforming into grits, cornmeal, flour—“It’s always been interesting,” Ethan says.
Soon, they were visiting the mill so often, they decided to help. Ethan’s earliest chore was watching buckets fill with processed grain and tapping the miller’s leg when it was time to change them out. Dad was “making sure Ethan didn’t get into trouble by sticking a finger somewhere he shouldn’t!” Now, while Ethan mans the mill, Reed juggles the day’s chores with telling the mill’s story, helping modern visitors connect with history.
“That’s the job we volunteered for when we came here,” Reed says. “Running the mill is the tool.”
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Hagood Mill keeps history alive – For more than 150 years, the water-powered grist mill at Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folk Center in Pickens has been a gathering place for neighbors to stock up on local news, as well as grits, meal and flour.